#victorian navy

[ltwilliammowett]

The “old” Royal Navy

During the Napoleonic Wars, the navy had grown enormously and hundreds of men had reached the rank of captain. But after 1815 the navy shrank and these men could only find employment as deadwood at half pay, blocking all opportunities for promotion for able, younger men. By the time the navy was needed again against Russia in 1854, the most senior admirals had already been dismissed. The consequences were all too clear. Even the younger officers were old - one man had been a commander for 47 years, another a lieutenant for 60 years, still another a captain for 61 years and a poor man a purser for 64 years. So they had to fall back on the old ones and so one was over 90, 7 between 90-80, 25 between 80-70 still another 7 were between 70-65 and only 1 was under 65.

But this not only made for old views but also for some very strange peculiarities like this one.  

Rear Admiral Henry John Rous (1795-1877), the captain of the Harlequin had his boat crew turned out in harlequin suits, while the men of the Calcedonia were resplendent in tartan. Not to be outdone, the men of the Blazer set a fashion for striped blue and white jackets, and the crew of the Vernon turned out in red serge frock coats and red comforters. One captain - Nobby Ewart - seeing one of his boat crew with a black eye, ordered all the others to paint the same eye black.

The most famous of the eccentric admirals was Sir Algernon Charles Fiesché Heneage (1833-1915), better known as Pompo. Pompo was harmless enough though resistant to anything resembling progress; technology, enineering, science and so forth would have earned his most scathing criticism. For Pompo appearances were everything. His affection was such that he could not bear to think of a common sailor washing his clothes and so he took 20dozen shirts to sea and sent the dirty ones home on every available ship bound for England. Even while rounding Cape Horn, with seas raging and men's thoughts on the Almighty and His wondrous works, Heneage was thinking of his shirts, and how he could transfer them to a passing ship. On one occasion a ship's carpenter was arrested for entering the admiral's cabin without being announced by an appropriate officer, and on another the same man was clapped in irons for going to Pompo's cabin to shut his portholes when the sea was splashing in. In the event the cabin was flooded but no one lower than a petty officer was allowed to swab it out.

Admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne (1855 – 1938) was as ridiculous as Pompo. On one occasion a common seaman brushed against his coat, whereupon he shuddered, took out a handkerchief to brush the point of contact and then threw the soiled linen overboard. Something that quickly became a habit for him. And for him, anyone below a petty officer was not worth talking about, and no common sailor had even been allowed to stand in his company.

Rear Admiral Charles Prothero (1849 – 1927) - known as the Bad to the men who served under him in the British navy in the mid- 19th century, was a man of bearlike size and strength, with a big black beard and hooked nose. He still believed he was serving under Nelson, the good old days. Commanding a ship were his predecessor had had a rich supply of the milk of human kindness, Prothero thought everyone had got soft. Bumping into a midshipman on the bridge, he lifted the offender by one huge hand on his collar and dropped him over the side of the bridge onto the deck. Inspecting the midshipmen's quarters he found that several of them had got chests of drawers alongside their hammocks. Inquiring what the articles were, Prothero was told that his predecessor had allowed extra furniture to make their lives more comfortable. Prothero exploded, "When i was a midshipman il ived in my chest and sometimes bathed in it too. Throw them over the side." He always mentioned himself in the old days, even if he had never experienced them himself.

[jamesfitzjamesdotcom]

Admiral Sir John Fisher

For an essay I learnt about Admiral Sir John Fisher (1841-1920), who is mostly remembered for his revolutionary Dreadnought battleship design. While I don't understand technical ship & gunnery stuff (really shot myself in the foot with my essay topic here), it was interesting to read about him as a person. Quite a character!

[John Fisher as a naval cadet in the late 1850s]

There even is a Franklin Expedition connection:

"I was chosen by Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, the great Arctic Explorer, to be his Flag Captain on the North American Station, in the "Northampton," then a brand new ship. He again was a splendid man and his kindness to me is unforgettable. He had gone through great hardships in the Arctic — once he hadn't washed for 179 days. He was like a rare old bit of mahogany; and I was told by an admirer of his that when the thermometer was 70 degrees below zero he found the ship so stuffy that he slept outside on the ice in his sleeping bag."

- John Arbuthnot Fisher Memories, by Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Fisher, 1919 pp. 143-144

[clove-pinks]

It's Franklin Expedition day! HMS Erebus and Terror departed Greenhithe, Kent one hundred and seventy-eight years ago today, on 19th May 1845.

The contemporary illustration of the expedition departing in The Illustrated London News:

In the last few days before he sailed, Franklin may have experienced a premonition of his fate. Suffering from the flu, he was resting at home with his wife, Jane, who had just finished sewing a silk Union Jack for him to take. Concerned about his illness, she draped the flag over his legs for warmth. He sprang to his feet: “There’s a flag thrown over me! Don’t you know that they lay the Union Jack over a corpse?” But on Sunday 18 May, the eve of his departure, with his wife and daughter present, the profoundly religious Franklin read Divine Service for the first time to his crews. And when the expedition sailed from the Thames the next morning, carrying 134 officers and men, most felt the Franklin expedition could not fail.

— Owen Beattie and John Geiger, Frozen in Time

[panderp123]

🫖🍰 Weekend with the Grandparents 🏴‍☠️🌊🗡️

A beautiful commission from my irl sister! This art is by @gabendselarom

The peaceful weekend afternoon tea etiquette with Grandma Ellie Pendragon & some swashbuckling pirates vs navy shenanigans with Grandpa Cornelius.

💙 Grandparents Ellie & Cornelius belong to me @panderp123

💜 Grandchildren aka PentiousXNerydia kids (top panel L-R) Evangeline, Noelius & Connor belong to @gabendselarom

[daguerreotyping]

Daguerreotype portrait of Commander Edward Hay, R. N., photographed by Ross & Thomson in Edinburgh, Scotland c. 1847-60.

A daguerreotype is capable of capturing greater depth and finer detail than any other photographic process of its time—perhaps even of our time—but it comes with the catch that, as the surface is silver-coated copper polished to a mirror finish, you must tilt it to just the right angle to see the image and not the mirror. You’ve got to catch the light, avoid the glare, dodge your own reflection while also trying to get as direct a view as possible—it’s a bit exasperating, a bit enchanting. And to photograph a daguerreotype straight on without catching your own reflection, you’ll need to use a black board with a hole for your camera lens.

This quality of the daguerreotype was not the origin of the idea that vampires can’t be photographed or reflected in mirrors, as that lore dates to Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897, well after daguerreotypes had been replaced by less fiddly processes—and Stoker’s notes even specify that one “could not codak” or even paint a portrait of Dracula. Still, this is what daguerreotypes make me think of—I like to imagine that a vampire would appear in a daguerreotype not as a blank space but rather the silvery hint of a figure that somehow never quite coalesces into the clear image that you know is there no matter how you turn the plate.

[feivelynart]

Character portraits for Sunless Skies: Monarch Mod

Regular Navy captains and New Sequencers

[acheronist]

original seaman's papers scan i found -> zoom in on the description info -> after i stared at it for hours trying to read the incredibly faded + loopy script.

@bridglars 🤝 insane people alert

[dancesingay]

[thebeautifulbook]

AFLOAT WITH NELSON by Charles H. Eden (London: MacQueen, 1897). Illustrated.

[revoltedstates]

CDV of a sailor in the British Royal Navy, by Louis Urbinsky. Norwich, England, ca 1870s-1890s.

[britneyshakespeare]

Dresses that are nice but they're only made to fit you if you're 5'5 T____T

[royllowarch]

HMS Warrior (1860) by Roy Llowarch Via Flickr: A trip over to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard 4th of August 2021. Seen here is HMS Warrior. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first ocean-going amour plated iron hulled warships in the world. They were built in response to France lunching the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled Gloire

[jamesfitzjamesdotcom]

Franklin Search Expedition officer Master Allard

Thanks to Logan Zachary and Glenn Marty Stein the officer in my carte de visites has been identified as Arctic veteran John Hillary Allard (1823-1901). He was on the following Franklin Search Expeditions: Second Master of HMS Investigator 1848-49, Second Master of HMS Pioneer from 1850-51 & Master of HMS Pioneer from 1852-54 (Arctic Navy list). I even have the clipping from the Illustrated London News (1 May 1852), that's why the guy somehow looked so familiar to me!

[clove-pinks]

I'm not done with Edward Couch (although I feel very sorry for his tragic fate). He not only looks like this but writes with the voice of an 1840s Gent in his letters home. He visits Greenland and writes to his parents: "Arrival took place this morning at 3 o’clock & one of the rummest snug little places I ever saw. x x x x x" (He uses tons of Xs in his letters, from the example in May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth).

"Old Franklin is an exceedingly good old chap." And he continues:

In our mess – we live uncommon well – too well almost – we commenced preserved meats & soups etc, a day or two ago & find them very good – in fact every thing is most comfortable – couldn’t be more so. x x x x We shall have plenty of shooting by & bye – when we arrive at our station – jammed in the ice – a regular set of game laws will come out

[lilac-nites]

We're going to get a shorter Classical Doll from VM!

Hopefully, they make it in their extended size too.

[daguerreotyping]

The Demon Photographer, His Visit to an Ironclad at Spithead by William Ralston, 1889